'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Underperforms In China

Star Wars: The Last Jedi received a chilly welcome during the film's opening weekend in China.

The Disney-Lucasfilm production has been successful worldwide — The Last Jedi had the sixth biggest worldwide film opening since 2002, earning approximately $450 million. Outside of the U.S., The Last Jedi has done best in Western Europe. In the U.K. the film earned $102.9 million, followed by Germany with $73.5 million and France with $57.6 million.

But the ticket sales from this weekend's opening in China were relatively low at $28.7 million.The Last Jedi had a significantly worse opening weekend in China than other recent films in the Star Wars franchise. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened to $33 million on its first day in China in 2016, with a weekend total of $53 million.

China's reluctance towards the franchise has history behind it — the original Star Wars wasn't available to China when it was released in 1977. The series has a decades-long stronghold on American popular culture, but the same isn't true for the Chinese film market.

Instead, the blockbuster in China this weekend was Chinese comedy The Ex-File 3: The Return of the Exes, which minted an impressive $86.7 million. The local hit has earned almost $200 million in just two weekends in theaters.

Despite the setbacks in China, the second biggest movie market in the world, the force is strong with The Last Jedi. After being released in mid-December, it has earned $1.21 billion worldwide.

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